LANSDALE — Two tricky curves on borough roads are under examination by borough council’s Public Safety committee, but don’t expect to see any changes to either soon.

Police Chief Robert McDyre reported to the council committee last week that his department has evaluated resident concerns and found that parts of Squirrel Lane and Lansdale Avenue are both safer than they seem.

“Regarding Squirrel, we did a speed study and the vehicle average (speed) was 27 (miles per hour) and it’s posted 25 out there,” McDyre said.

Residents had asked the committee and department to evaluate the speed safety of a curve in Squirrel just north of 8th Street on the border between Lansdale and Hatfield Township, and McDyre told the committee that while drivers can’t be cited for speeding unless they go 31 miles per hour or above, he plans to add an increased police presence in the area that could deter speeding through that curve.

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“We’ll also try to get Hatfield to look at their side. It’s a road that does concern us, but statistically doesn’t meet the warrants” for numbers of accidents required to add signage or change the posted speed limit, he said.

Another troublesome area that residents have asked be addressed is the pair of curves on Lansdale Avenue between 7th Street and Knapp Road, as the road bends from north, to east, then north again as it skirts the grounds of Lansdale Catholic High School and the St. Mary Manor senior complex.

McDyre told the committee that anti-speeding signage had been damaged near the curve prior to Hurricane Sandy and would be repaired by PennDOT, but that curve also does not meet state warrants for the number of accidents required to happen before the speed limit can be changed.

“I actually believe we’ve made a lot of progress. We don’t see nearly the accidents we used to out there; they’re few and far between but we do still have accidents,” he said.

Committee chair Mike Sobel added that neighbors near the curve have asked about adding grooves along the edges of the road lanes in order to discourage speeding by creating noise when drivers near those edges. He and McDyre both said that those grooves could in certain cases make roads less safe, because speed studies have shown that grooved roads lower the coefficient of friction between vehicles and the road surface and could make drivers more, not less, likely to lose control in a curve — and those grooves can be damaged easily if they fill with rain or snow and then freeze.

“We want to keep at it, and we’ll do whatever we have to do, it’s just a very, very challenging corner,” Sobel said.

Neighbors near the intersection are very “sensitive to it, because they hear a lot of squealing of wheels and they’re afraid drivers) are going to end up in the front of their house, and I would be a little sensitive too. It’s just a tricky place,” he said.

Both Sobel and McDyre added that PennDOT has been very cooperative in working with the borough and its police department to address speed concerns on that curve and elsewhere in the borough.

In other Public Safety business, the committee heard an update on the status of ordinances being written that will revamp the borough’s downtown parking meter zones and prices; McDyre said that process will likely require a total of three new borough ordinances and enforcement of the new prices and zones would start with “a grace period of a couple of weeks” as drivers get used to them.

The committee also reviewed a list of concerns that have been discussed since early summer with residents along Forest and Highland Avenues near the proposed site of an expanded North Penn YMCA and collaborative project with three other area nonprofits. All of the safety concerns near the area that the borough can address have been addressed, McDyre and Sobel said, and vehicle counts and speed studies have shown those roads to be below warrants for additional signage or safety measures.

McDyre also complimented his department’s officers on their work during Hurricane Sandy and thanked borough council for their support, and said a replacement for his police vehicle that was damaged by a falling tree during the storm would likely be covered by insurance. He added that the police department projects it will finish 2012 roughly three percent under its budget for the year, and its 2013 budget will be part of the borough budget presentation on Nov. 28 and would be further discussed when the committee meets next on Dec. 5.